In American culture, many bawdy jokes focus on wives who commit adultery with a mailman, milkman, plumber, traveling salesman, or any other man who knocks on the front door while the husband is away. In 1912, the year in which The Iceman Cometh is set, one of the deliverymen who stopped frequently at homes was the iceman. He delivered blocks of ice used to refrigerate food. Like milkmen and traveling salesmen, icemen became characters in these bawdy jokes. —

Ushering in the month of November, six 15-letter across entries with the hidden letter C upon a black square (or behind, take your choice) constitute the interrelated group of this toilsome, tough and tedious Thursday crossword:

Other across — 14. Part of E.N.T.,EAR; 15. Stand for a sitting EASEL; 16. Part of a waste reduction strategy,RE-USE;20. Figure in Raphael’s “The School of Athens”,PLATO; 22. Painter’s aid,LADDER; 24. Drawer at a doctor’s office?,SYRINGE; 26. Not moved from the original location,IN SITU; 30. LibDEM (U.K. party member); 31. Times or Century,FONT; 33. Some French?,DES; 41.RENE Gallimard, protagonist of “M. Butterfly”; 42. Something to contemplate,NAVEL;44. Tributary of the High Rhine, AARE; 49. Third of November?,VEE; 50. Like bright red cardinals,MALE; 52. Egyptian headdress figure,ASP; 54. Children ofISRAEL (descendants of Jacob); 56. Goldsmith, for one,ARTISAN; 60. Like “Wedding Crashers” or “Bridesmaids”,R-RATED; 63. A current flows into it, ANODE;70. Brother of Moses,AARON; 71. Beauty pageant judging criterion,POISE; 72. Iraq war danger, for short,IED.

The School of Athens is one of the most famous frescoes by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1510 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.